Basement Tapes: Wayne D. Back in the Basement: Adding Speed to the Swing

By Wayne | Videos: Basement Tapes

I have 5 tournament rounds under my belt in the last 3 weeks (the Middle Atlantic PGA Section Championship: 73-72-77, and the Middle Atlantic PGA Senior Section Championship: 74-73) and have put some new ideas into play so I thought I would share them with everybody. I have really needed to find a way to add speed to my swing while taking stress off my body, and I have found a solution. It goes back (of course) to Hogan, and when I was looking at my recent swings compared to my compilation of his swings it became more and more evident that I was not using my hands and wrists enough and that the overall stiffness of the swing as it moved to the end of the backswing was causing me to lift and then lean into the front of my left foot starting down, which in turn kept my left side in the way in the downswing. My swing path through the ball was still too out to the right due to my slow clearing, and with the shaft tending to come in a bit steep with the face slightly closed I had no incentive to turn out of the way faster. My discovery from watching Hogan was that I had never tried to drag the handle back initially in the takeaway while opening the face to an extreme. When I tried this the shaft did not get behind me early, my right arm carried away from me much better, and my wrists were able to cock way more. The overall effect on my pivot was to feel that it was not as stressed and lifted as I reached the top, and with my right leg still flexed my transition could start without me leaning down into the front of my left foot. I’m pretty excited about this and I think you will find it quite interesting.